At least 102 people have died after consuming toxic¹ alcohol in India's West Bengal state, police say.

印度警方称，孟加拉邦至少102人因喝下毒酒而死亡。

Residents of 12 villages in Sangrampur, Magrahat, Usthi and Mandirbazar areas in South 24 Parganas fell ill after drinking the alcohol on Wednesday evening. Four people have been arrested.

Some 100 others are being treated in hospitals, with fears the death toll² could rise.

Toxic alcohol deaths are a regular occurrence in India.

Last week, the state of Gujarat brought in a new law making the illegal manufacture and sale of toxic alcohol there punishable by death.

Ransacked³

The BBC's Amitabha Bhattasali in Calcutta says that 32 people have died overnight, pushing up the death toll from 48 from Wednesday evening.

A large number of people were also admitted to hospitals overnight with symptoms of alcohol poisoning

About 70 people are in a critical condition, state government minister Shyamal Mandal told the BBC.

"More and more people are turning up with symptoms of liquor poisoning and one local hospital is now overcrowded," district administrator⁴ NS Nigam told the AFP news agency.

Some of the critically ill had been transferred to Calcutta, he said.

Medicines and doctors were being rushed to the Diamond Harbour hospital.

Four breweries⁵（酿酒厂，啤酒厂） were ransacked（洗劫，掠夺） after the deaths began to be reported, AFP quoted officials as saying.

Illegal alcohol - commonly called desi daroo or country-made liquor in India - usually costs as little as 10 rupees (20 US cents) and the majority of the consumers are poor, daily-wage workers.

The liquor is usually spiked⁶ with methyl alcohol（木精，甲醇） and industrial spirits which can lead to fits, vomiting⁷ and death.